Enabling Co-Existence of Hosts or Virtual Machines with Identical Addresses

Abstract

A method, an apparatus and an article of manufacture for enabling co-existence of multiple machines with identical addresses within a single data center network. The method includes assigning a unique pseudo identifier to each machine in the network that can be used for routing a packet to a destination machine, replacing a sender media access control address on an address resolution protocol request with a pseudo identifier of the sender at an edge network switch, retrieving a private network identifier from a mapping table based on the sender pseudo identifier and returning a pseudo identifier for the destination address based on the private network identifier, and replacing the pseudo identifier of the destination address with an actual identifier at a destination edge network switch for routing the packet to the destination machine.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]Embodiments of the invention generally relate to information technology (IT), and, more particularly, to virtual machine management.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Enterprise computing is evolving at a rapid pace due to advances in the virtualization technology. A prominent change revolves around mobility of software resources. Entire software stacks in the form of virtual machines can now be moved, live (that is, without a down-time) or offline (backup and restore), anywhere within the same data center or from one data center to another with relative ease. This evolving landscape presents challenges such as the co-existence of identical or overlapping layer-2 and layer-3 addresses within a single data center network.[0003]Enterprises can spend significant IT costs on configuration and deployment of large multi-tier applications. For example, multiple instances of such applications are required due to a variety of reasons. There can be multiple environme...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides methods for enabling multiple virtual machines or hosts with identical addresses in a computer network. These methods include assigning each machine a unique pseudo identifier for routing packets, replacing the sender's media access control address with the pseudo identifier at a network switch, and replacing the pseudo identifier of the destination machine with an actual identifier for routing the packet to the destination machine. The invention also provides computer-implemented methods and apparatus for carrying out these methods.

Problems solved by technology

This evolving landscape presents challenges such as the co-existence of identical or overlapping layer-2 and layer-3 addresses within a single data center network.

Enterprises can spend significant IT costs on configuration and deployment of large multi-tier applications.

Additionally, data centers that are designed independently may have overlapping network address ranges, and may not be interconnected as part of a single network fabric.

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